title: A high-throughput label-free nanoparticle analyser.
abstract: Synthetic nanoparticles and genetically modified viruses are used in a range of applications, but high-throughput analytical tools for the physical characterization of these objects are needed. Here we present a microfluidic analyser that detects individual nanoparticles and characterizes complex, unlabelled nanoparticle suspensions. We demonstrate the detection, concentration analysis and sizing of individual synthetic nanoparticles in a multicomponent mixture with sufficient throughput to analyse 500,000 particles per second. We also report the rapid size and titre analysis of unlabelled bacteriophage T7 in both salt solution and mouse blood plasma, using just ~1 × 10⁻⁶ l of analyte. Unexpectedly, in the native blood plasma we discover a large background of naturally occurring nanoparticles with a power-law size distribution. The high-throughput detection capability, scalable fabrication and simple electronics of this instrument make it well suited for diverse applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fraikin
authors.forename: Tambet
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Teesalu
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: McKenney
authors.forename: Erkki
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruoslahti
authors.forename: Andrew N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Cleland
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017123:Bacteriophage T7 / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D057230:Limit of Detection; D051379:Mice; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000032:analysis*; D010316:Particle Size; D010949:Plasma / Q000737:chemistry; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013535:Suspensions
chemical_list: D013535:Suspensions